EQUITY INCENTIVE PLAN

The Company’s 2006 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”) allows the Company to make awards of various types of equity-based compensation, including stock options, dividend equivalent rights (“DERs”), stock appreciation rights (“SARs”), restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance units, performance shares and other awards, to employees and directors of the Company. The Company was authorized to issue 1,666,666 shares under the Plan; provided, that no more than 1,250,000 of such shares may be used for grants of restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance units, performance shares and other awards. The Plan expired on July 12, 2016 and as of that date the Company can no longer make additional awards under the Plan. During 2017, the Company intends to present a successor plan to the Transgenomic stockholders for approval.

The Plan is administered by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors (the “Committee”), which has the authority to set the number, exercise price, term and vesting provisions of the awards granted under the Plan, subject to the terms thereof. Either incentive or non-qualified stock options may be granted to employees of the Company, but only non-qualified stock options may be granted to non-employee directors and advisors. However, in either case, the Plan requires that stock options must be granted at exercise prices not less than the fair market value of the common stock on the date of the grant. Options issued under the plan vest over periods as determined by the Committee and expire 10 years after the date the option was granted.

For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, we recorded compensation expense of $0.1 million and $0.6 million, respectively within selling, general and administrative expense. As of December 31, 2016, there was $0.1 million of unrecognized compensation expense related to unvested stock awards, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of approximately 1.0 years.

The fair value of the options and SARs granted during 2016 was estimated on their respective grant dates using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The Black-Scholes model was used with the following assumptions: risk-free interest rates of 1.13% to 1.92%, based on the U.S. Treasury yield in effect at the time of grant; dividend yields of zero percent; expected lives of six years, based on historical exercise activity; and volatility of 85% to 86% for grants made during the year ended December 31, 2016 based on the historical volatility of our stock over a time that is consistent with the expected life of the option.

The fair value of the options granted during 2015 was estimated on their respective grant dates using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The Black-Scholes model was used with the following assumptions: risk-free interest rates of 1.32% to 1.91%, based on the U.S. Treasury yield in effect at the time of grant; dividend yields of zero percent; expected lives of four to six years, based on historical exercise activity; and volatility of 83% to 86% for grants made during the year ended December 31, 2015 based on the historical volatility of our stock over a time that is consistent with the expected life of the option.

The weighted average grant date fair value per share of options granted during the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 was $0.60 and $0.96 respectively.

Stock Options.

The following table summarizes stock option activity under the Plan during the year ended December 31, 2016:



	Number of Options		Weighted Average Exercise Price
Outstanding at January 1, 2016	1,107,794		$	3.45
Granted	25,250		0.84
Forfeited	(395,018	)	2.91
Expired	—		—
Outstanding at December 31, 2016	738,026		$	3.59
Exercisable at December 31, 2016	537,091		$	4.26

All stock options outstanding were issued to employees, officers or outside directors.

As of December 31, 2016, 720,128 outstanding options were vested or expected to vest. The weighted average exercise price of these options was $3.55 and the aggregate intrinsic value was zero with a remaining weighted average contractual life of 7.5 years.

As of December 31, 2016, 537,091 options were exercisable with a weighted average exercise price of $4.26 and an aggregate intrinsic value of zero. The weighted average contractual life of these options was 7.2 years.

No options were exercised in 2016 or 2015.

The total fair value of awards that vested during 2016 and 2015 was $0.6 million and $0.8 million, respectively.

Stock Appreciation Rights (“SARs”).

The following table summarizes SARs activity under the Plan during the year ended December 31, 2016:



	Number of SARs		Weighted Average Exercise Price
Outstanding at January 1, 2016	98,333		$	4.14
Granted	—		—
Forfeited	(15,000	)	3.15
Expired	—		—
Outstanding at December 31, 2016	83,333		$	4.32
Exercisable at December 31, 2016	83,333		$	4.32

All SARs outstanding were issued to officers.

As of December 31, 2016, 83,333 outstanding and exercisable SARs shares were vested or expected to vest. The weighted average exercise price of these options was $4.32 and the aggregate intrinsic value was zero with a remaining weighted average contractual life of 6.7 years. There were no SARs shares exercised in 2016 or 2015. During the year ended December 31, 2016, the SARs liability decreased by less than $0.1 million. At December 31, 2016, a liability of less than $0.1 million was recorded in accrued expenses.